"Hi, Neighbor"

"Hi, Neighbor"
April 27, 1976
B-

Lander, McKean, and Shearer co-wrote this episode which has Lenny and Squiggy move in upstairs (four flights up).  It's not as funny as I hoped with that team but obviously of interest on several points.

First of all, we learn that Squiggy still lives with his mother, and stepfather, while Lenny lives with his sister and brother-in-law.  It apparently never occurred to them to get an apartment together until the girls suggest it.  Then poor Shirley is pressured into vouching for them, as one of their oldest friends.  (Helen Page Camp is perfectly adequate as landlady Mrs. Havenwurst and would return once more that season, but she just doesn't have the zest or depth of Betty Garrett's Mrs. Babish.)  Laverne seems more upset about the idea of them as neighbors than Shirley, although she's the one who does more to reconcile them when the guys quarrel and Lenny kicks Squiggy out, causing Squiggy to couch-surf at the girls' place. 

This episode has more physical comedy than we've seen on the series so far, another thing that's surprising in this first season, as things fall slowly into place, the place where the images of the show would reign.  We get three hellos from Squiggy but none is in what would be the template, and in fact one of them is preceded by Lenny's "Hi, Laverne."

Ah, yes, the Lavenny, very one-sided here but nonetheless strong.  It is Lenny who also utters the title phrase, aimed very specifically at Laverne.  Laverne actually pays him two visits, the first to convince him to let Squiggy move back in (and note that it is Shirley who sends her, as if she knows that Lenny will listen to Laverne), the second to return his jacket that she "stole" in order to sew one of her cursive L's to fix the "ONE WOLF" he got in Chinatown.  If I remember correctly, Lenny would wear this jacket for the next few seasons, probably until the Hawaiian-shirt era of the California episodes.  It would be a symbol of not just his illusion that he's a loner but also of his devotion to Laverne, although, like so much on the show, it is subliminal.

It's on that second visit, when she says she wanted to talk to him rather than Shirley (who is, Squigley shippers take note, teaching Squiggy to do laundry), that he asks, "Should I take a shower?", implying that he's willing and almost ready to have sex with her.  And when he sees what she's done to his jacket, he plants a big smooch on her.

Which she is shocked and disgusted by, although he doesn't notice.  And here we come to the one-sided part, although I can say now that it would not always be this unrequited.  Arguably, it could simply be the shock of being kissed when she's not expecting it.  She does like Lenny as a friend, even when she tells him that Squiggy is his only friend.  When Lenny jokingly proposes marriage to Squiggy (is their ship Squigney?  Lengy?), she's very amused.  But Lavenny has a long way to go before it's a plausible ship.

Still no Shirmine by the way.